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The quality or state of being stiff; as, the stiffness of cloth or of paste; stiffness of manner; stiffness of character. The vices of old age have the stiffness of it too. South.

Restiveness. [Obs.]

age to; to further; to promote; to benefit; to profit. The truth is, the archbishop's own stiffness and averseness to comply with the court designs, advantaged his adversaries against him. Fuller. What is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away Luke ix. 25. To advantage one's sel…

Stiffness or fixation of a joint; formation of a stiff joint. Dunglison.

n bent into a series of alternate ridges and grooves in parallel lines, giving it greater stiffness. -- Corrugated paper, a thick, coarse paper corrugated in order to give it elasticity. It is used as a wrapping material for fragile articles, as bottles.

Inability to express one's self; stiffness. [Obs.] A reverend disputant of the same costiveness in public elocution with myself. Wakefield.

State of being stretched to stiffness; tension.

t, created in the first day, God gave no proper place or fixation. Sir W. Raleigh. Marked stiffness or absolute fixation of a joint. Quain. A fixation and confinement of thought to a few objects. Watts.

Yielding to pressure for want of firmness and stiffness; soft and weak; limber; lax; drooping; flabby; as, a flaccid muscle; flaccid flesh. Religious profession . . . has become flacced. I. Taylor. -- Flac"cid*ly, adv. -- Flac"cid*ness, n.

To hang loose without stiffness; to bend down, as flexible bodies; to be loose, yielding, limp. As loose it [the sail] flagged around the mast. T. Moore.

Want of ardor, animation, vivacity, etc.; coldness of affection or of manner; dullness; stiffness and formality; as, frigidity of a reception, of a bow, etc.

Tenderness or stiffness in the foot of a horse, which causes him to move in a hobbling manner.

fore and aft, usually above deck, and intended to increase the longitudinal strength and stiffness. Used chiefly in American river and lake steamers. Called also hogging frame, and hogback.

or state of being indocile; dullness of intellect; unteachableness; intractableness. The stiffness and indocility of the Pharisees. W. Montagu.

Hardness of character, manner, sensibility, etc.; obduracy; stiffness; want of pliancy or feeling. A certain induration of character had arisen from long habits of business. Coleridge.

quality or state of being inflexible, or not capable of being bent or changed; unyielding stiffness; inflexibleness; rigidity; firmness of will or purpose; unbending pertinacity; steadfastness; resoluteness; unchangeableness; obstinacy. The inflexibility of mechanism. A. Baxter. That grave inflexibility of soul. Church…

ding), the system of horizontal braces (as between two vertical trusses) by which lateral stiffness is secured.

The state of being bound or stiffened; stiffness; as, the ligature of a joint.

Lacking stiffness; flimsy; as, a limp cravat.

The quality or state of being prim; affected formality or niceness; preciseness; stiffness.